Primal Jalapeño Poppers with Bacon & Sweet Potato

This is fast becoming my favorite party food. It’s perfect for potlucks, summer parties, or football tailgates. While not perfectly paleo (it contains cream cheese), it’s pretty close and the addition of sweet potato reduces the amount of cream cheese required.

Many bacon jalapeno recipes wrap the bacon around the jalapeno. In this version, I chop up the bacon and incorporate it into the filling. This allows me to stretch my bacon a little farther — and I can use the cheaper, “Bacon Ends & Pieces” instead of the higher priced stuff.

Delicious appetizer/snack with a kick! You can make these even more fancy by adding your favorite ingredients: onion, cilantro, etc. You can also experiment by using different winter squashes instead of sweet potato. Kombocha, for example, tastes great too.

Ingredients

10-12 jalapeño peppers

1 medium sweet potato,cooked ~1 cup

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

8 oz bacon, cooked and diced

Instructions

If your sweet potato has not already been cooked, bake in the oven: 425ºF for 45 minutes or ~3 minutes in the microwave on high (they taste better roasted).

If your bacon is not cooked, cook it in the skillet, or you can bake it in the oven: 400ºF for 20 minutes. After cooking, dice the bacon.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Slice jalapeños in half, length wise and scoop out the seeds. Place empty peppers on a baking dish, face up.

Combine the sweet potato and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix until smooth and creamy. (I use my stand mixer).

Add bacon pieces and stir to combine.

Scoop spoonfuls of mixture into jalapeno shells.

Bake at 375º for 20 minutes.

Notes

The amount of filling needed will vary according to the size of your peppers, mind were pretty big, if yours are smaller, you can either reduce the amount of cream cheese and sweet potato, or use more peppers.